Warriors.com: How to Fix the Playoffs

LPKingsFan

LPKingsFan

All-Star
#1
#1
Not sure if this has been posted anywhere yet, but I just came across it and found it captivating. With all the talk about how the finals are boring and the NBA playoffs need to be fixed, a blogger on Warriors.com proposes a solution: three conferences and a seeded playoffs

Check it out, it's an interesting read. He even sets out a playoff bracket of what this year's would have looked like under his plan. IMO, this would bring an air of March Madness to the NBA, which is much needed. Imagine LeBron and Carmelo going head to head in the first round, and the Heat underdogs against Utah. Potential final four of Dallas/Detroit and SA/Pheonix would be hard to beat. Personally, I think it's brilliant, and while radical worth considering for a league that is quickly finding itself losing steam in the all important realm of TV ratings...
 
pdxKingsFan

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member
#2
#2
I can understand moving to a non-conference seeding process, I don't necessarily agree with it but it would theoretically allow the best teams to meet in the NBA Finals regardless of conference.

But moving to three conferences with more specific schedules works to defeat this purpose. It will also kill regional rivalries by making them unlikely playoff matchups.

Thumbs down for me.
 
J

JonBoy418

G-League
#4
#4
I've always been a fan eliminating the divisions within the conference. That way you don't get a .500 team as a #3 seed. You don't have any change to the scheduling (4 in conf. and 2 out of conf.). And you still maintain the rivalries.


I think this particular blog is a very "now" view of the state of the NBA. He realizes that there is a lot of parity between the depth of the Western conference vs. the Eastern conference. To rectify the problem, he proposes to balance the parity by adding a third confernce.


It wasn't too long ago that the West was far weaker than the East. Heck, there was a time in the NBA when Golden State was winning championships. The NBA is a fluid league and parity can change with a few drafts and free agent aquisitions.

It just seems like this is a short term solution to the current problem.
 
S

Superman

All-Star
#5
#5
LPKingsFan said:
Not sure if this has been posted anywhere yet, but I just came across it and found it captivating. With all the talk about how the finals are boring and the NBA playoffs need to be fixed, a blogger on Warriors.com proposes a solution: three conferences and a seeded playoffs

Check it out, it's an interesting read. He even sets out a playoff bracket of what this year's would have looked like under his plan. IMO, this would bring an air of March Madness to the NBA, which is much needed. Imagine LeBron and Carmelo going head to head in the first round, and the Heat underdogs against Utah. Potential final four of Dallas/Detroit and SA/Pheonix would be hard to beat. Personally, I think it's brilliant, and while radical worth considering for a league that is quickly finding itself losing steam in the all important realm of TV ratings...
Click to expand...
I actually like it, but I don't think it's fair to seed the teams 1-16 if they're not all playing against each other an equal amount of times.
 
HndsmCelt

HndsmCelt

Hall of Famer
#6
#6
And yet one more group of techno geeks miss the point and the BIG picture. Sports are palyed for fans and for money. Rivelries (East v. West) keep fans interested after their team is eliminatedd. This rebracketing would have assured that most of the people east of the Mississipi would have stoped watching after the first round.:cool:
 
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Bad Boy Bo

Bad Boy Bo

Bench
#7
#7
I'm all for this method. I agree absolutely with everything he proposed. It's interesting that HndsmCelt mentioned fans cheering for their own conferences, but I find it very untrue. I find that most people, after their home team (if that's their favorite team), are more player fan oriented. I don't think the 1-16 ranking would be a problem. Only problem I see from the three conferences during the season (I even thought about this prior to the article) is the All-star game.

The regular season schedule will benefit players more (with rest), and build up the rivalries with the divisional teams. Come play-off time, there would be some traveling, but unlike the season, you'll be focusing on one team for each round. I'm all for the top teams to go head-to-head for the championship.
 
pdxKingsFan

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member
#8
#8
I agree with Bad Boy Bo that people don't root for the next closest team or East/West style if their team is out. If current ratings are any indication a lot just tune out entirely.

But you simply cannot seed 1-16 unless each team plays an identical schedule. The whole point of divisions is to divide large leagues into a manageable regular season schedule and to provide some basis as to who qualifies for the playoffs. If people want 1-16 so badly do away with all of the divisions and come up with a way to make everyone play the same schedule - a lot of people have suggested shortening the season to make games more meaningful anyway, a ~60 game schedule with a single home and away match for each team would accomplish that goal. Plus it would make any future expansion as simple as adding 2 games back on the schedule and may even realistically open the doors for overseas expansion.

Please note, I don't advocate any of the above. I think it is a short sighted response to an uncommon post season that saw the top seed shockingly eliminated in the first round and a very surprising finals match up that was horifically one sided. But that doesn't happen every year even when the balance of power strongly favors one coast over the other.
 
HndsmCelt

HndsmCelt

Hall of Famer
#9
#9
Celt never said cheered... he said INTERESTED in. But hey why wouldn't west coast ball fans really like a system that prety well assures the entier East will be watching NASCAR in in May.
 
Mr. S£im Citrus

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
#11
#11
Sure they are... because Stern's vision for a dream Finals was San Antonio versus anybody... :rolleyes:

If the playoffs were fixed, the Spurs would have lost in the first round.
 
A

Arena Skeptic

Bench
#13
#13
I like most of this idea, but not all of it. I think I still like the idea of 2 conferences, each with three divisions, better. Sort of a compromise solution.

Also, I think I'd bite the bullet and go ahead and let each of the 6 division winners in, and the remaining 10 teams would be decided by record and strength of schedule, not unlike Fitzgerald's proposal. A pretty good example would be, coincidentally, the Warriors; face it, they'd have won at least 45 in the East this year. They should be seeded accordingly.

My proposal would be more like melding the current system with a ranking system.

Bottom-line, though: It's most likely that the Final Four this year, using Fitzgerald's proposal, would have been Dallas vs Houston, and Phoenix vs San Antonio. I maintain that this Final Four would have been far more entertaining, and would probably have produced a very different champion.

Setting it in stone that 8 teams from each conference will make the playoffs is pretty antiquated.

Tim Kawakami of the Mercury News says the Cavs are the worst Finals team in 25 years. I don't think 100% he's correct, but I think he can make a pretty good argument to that effect. I didn't even watch the Finals this year.

Fitzgerald's proposal would almost guarantee no repeats of SA/CLE. That was a waste of time.
 
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